


power in your hands

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, F/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the fall of the Conclave, Vox Machina have time for some side projects. Vex and Percy's is Victor and his shop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	power in your hands

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by this exchange on Tumblr:  
> deerity: A medieval weaponry shop run by three people all dating each other. A polyarmory.  
> jlnicegrl: I mean I don’t ship Percy/Vex/Viktor, but...
> 
> [Originally posted to Tumblr](http://notalwaysweak.tumblr.com/post/149360450038/jlnicegirl-deerity-a-medieval-weaponry-shop). Slightly expanded and edited here. Written prior to episode 65, so disregards canon after that point.
> 
> * * *

Vex gets rather attached to Victor.

Not in the all-encompassing, profound way that she's attached to Percy (much to her brother's annoyance, which in turn fuels her joy over it), but when Percy and Victor finally manage to put their heads together after the destruction of the Conclave and start talking weaponry against future monstrous uprisings, it makes her heart glad to see the little man with his diminished hands tap into her Percy's brain and help bring his ideas to life.

(Even if some of his ideas scare her to pieces. She's used to cunning and guile, not to giant far-flung round metal balls that explode into hooked shrapnel on impact.)

The three of them come to an accord over the shop; it's still Victor's shop, because he owns the building free and clear, including whatever it is in the basement that he still hasn't told them about. Not to mention that Vex and Percy come and go, while Victor stays.

But when they _are_ there, Percy has freedom of movement throughout the workshop, and Vex...

Vex doesn't want to say she's just the front counter staff. Sometimes it feels that way and sometimes it doesn't. But she can haggle. Oh yes. And she can convince the customers that trying to play either Percy or Victor off against her won't work. This isn't a scenario where if Mother says no, they can run to Father. She doesn't even need to cozy right up to Victor for that; her patented wink and a simple caress of his hair or kiss of his cheek are plenty.

The shop has more modern conveniences now than it did prior to some of the de Rolo family fortune being invested into it. Like a whole roof, and walls warded against fire damage, and an actual for-real bedroom as opposed to a simple pallet in a corner.

The day Vex realizes how attached Victor is to them is the day that Anna Ripley comes into the shop seeking more black powder. Vex is in back writing price labels (Victor has insufficient fingers to grip a pen), and splotches ink everywhere when Victor calls her name, loud and shaky.

She pushes through into the shopfront and halts. Ripley's gun is pointed at Victor's face; Victor has his hands on the counter and gives Vex a helpless look.

"She isn't the one I want," Ripley says, cocking the gun as she swings it toward Vex.

If only Vex had an acid pool handy.

"I'm the one you're getting," she replies coolly. Sitting and scribing price labels is no time to be wearing weaponry, which is why she naturally has four knives and at least ten darts concealed on her person. She slides a knife out of her sleeve and flicks it at Ripley's gun hand.

The gun has time to go off before Ripley drops it.

Victor starts screaming, and Vex bemusedly realizes he's between her and Ripley, has taken the bullet for her.

Percy, alerted at last, comes from the back of the workshop at a run.

"Percival," Ripley pants.

"Don't waste your breath." Percy shoots her in the shoulder, enough to seriously knock her out but not enough to kill her. Ripley crumples to the floor in unconscious imitation of the way that Victor's crumpled over the counter. Vex ignores her screaming in favor of racing to Victor's side.

The bullet has gone through cleanly enough, but it's the _where_ that's the problem; the wheezing, bubbling sound indicates that it pierced a lung. Vex gets on the earring and yells for Pike even as she's slapping her hands over the wound, as though she can hold Victor's breath in his body by main force.

"I'll be all right," Victor assures her. Vex's heart sinks as she sees the blood that comes out with his words.

"Ssssh. Don't talk."

Percy joins them, Ripley's gun shoved into his belt. Vex assumes he's tied Ripley up, mainly because she would have heard it if he'd shot her again. His eyes are wide and wild, and he pushes her hands aside, his bigger palm almost covering the ragged exit wound in Victor's back

"Get bandages. Dressings. Anything. We need to seal the wound."

Victor's breath is whistling and thin, but when Vex comes back with a handful of linen (they have copious bandages on hand due to the nature of the shop), he manages a smile that's a weak variation on his usual manic grin.

"When I lift him, get the cloth onto him. Pack it right in. I'll cover this side." Percy sounds too calm to really be okay, but his hands are steady as he lifts Victor up off the counter. Victor lets out a rattling groan, but Vex is too busy moving her hands in against his chest with the folded cloth pad to listen too closely to the quality of his breathing. Percy mirrors her movements, and between them they get a bandage around Victor's chest.

"There has to be a cleric closer than Pike..." Vex touches her earring again, then drops her hand.

"She's only at the Temple."

Percy keeps his hand pressed over Victor's dressings as rose-red blood flowers begin to bloom on them.

Pike comes running in, assesses the situation with a glance, and waves both of them away from Victor, already reaching for her symbol of Sarenrae. Her presence alone cuts through the ever-present smell of black powder and the coppery tang of blood like a breath of fresh air.

"Water," she says curtly to Percy, and then, "You'll be okay, Victor. They took good care of you."

"They always do..." Victor coughs. "Haven't lost any fingers with them here."

Vex is a couple steps back from the counter, where Pike sent her, but she can see the reflection of Victor's smile in Pike's eyes.

She hears a groan at her feet. She's standing almost right on top of Ripley, who's slowly coming around, her unfocused eyes suggesting a concussion from hitting the ground, blood oozing from her shoulder.

"Help," Ripley croaks, clearly unable to see who's standing over her.

"All right," Vex says, and kicks her in the wounded shoulder. Ripley passes out again with a groan. Vex sighs and gets on the earring again, this time calling for her brother and Grog. Much as she'd like to shoot Ripley herself, there has to be due process here... and she's sure that Percy's sister will also be very interested in seeing Anna Ripley again.

"He's all right now," Pike says, touching Vex's hand. "Best to keep the bandages on for a little while though."

"Why?"

"A reminder to not be so stupid next time!" Victor says it like he's said it before. Given how many fingers he's down and the number of other scars he has, there's no doubt that he has.

Percy holds out the basin of water for Vex to rinse her bloodied hands and she does so, drying them off, glaring resentfully at where Ripley has bled on her nice shop floor.

(Vex is, maybe, just a little possessive of her property, including their shop.)

"What about–" Pike gestures at Ripley. "Should I heal her too?"

"Absolutely not," Percy and Vex say in unison, and Pike doesn't protest. "My brother and Grog are on the way," Vex adds. "We'll get everyone together, travel to Whitestone... have a proper trial. She's wronged other people as well."

"All right," Pike says, and she moves to stand by Ripley's head, her hand on the shaft of her mace, while Vex puts her arm around Victor and Percy puts his arm around both of them.

Victor's reduced hands creep into theirs, and they wait.


End file.
